Ducks rally from an early deficit to extend their winning streak against the Jets.
For their second game coming off the NHL’s extended Winter Olympic break, the Anaheim Ducks hosted the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night at Honda Center.
The Ducks won their first game back on Wednesday against the Edmonton Oilers, and they were looking to extend their winning streak to four games. The Jets were coming off a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
Anaheim was without the services of Troy Terry and Mikael Granlund, with Frank Vatrano still on IR. Ryan Strome missed the game and was “under the weather.” Rather than running an 11/7 lineup, Ian Moore slotted back in as the team’s fourth-line right winger, and Drew Helleson was inserted back on the blueline next to Pavel Mintyukov.
Here’s how the Ducks lined up:
Kreider-Carlsson-Gauthier
Killorn-McTavish-Sennecke
Viel-Poehling-Harkins
Johnston-Washe-Moore
LaCombe-Trouba
Zellweger-Gudas
Mintyukov-Helleson
Lukas Dostal got the start for the Ducks for the ninth time in their last ten games. He saved 29 of the 33 shots he faced in this game. Opposing Dostal was Olympic hero and gold medal-winning goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who stopped 35 of 40.
“It was a thrilling game, the crowd’s been great,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said after the game. “There’s sure a lot to be excited about in a game like tonight. We find different ways, and guys still compete. It wasn’t pretty at the start of that game, and the third period in the past two games have been pretty good.”
Game Notes
The Ducks got off to another slow start and went down two goals early. With Winnipeg controlling the first period, special teams not in the Ducks’ favor, and Hellebuyck looking like every bit of the best goaltender in the world, a two-goal deficit felt like five or six goals.
The Ducks continued their shot-attempt volume, but won more pucks back as the game progressed, allowing them opportunities to break down Winnipeg in the small areas and ultimately find the scoreboard. All things done, the 5v5 underlying numbers painted a fairly even game, with the Ducks accounting for 52.83% of the shots on goal, 50.47% of the shot attempts, and 49.83% of the expected goals.
Jackson LaCombe: LaCombe may have been the Ducks’ most positively impactful player through the full 60 minutes in this game and into overtime. Alongside Trouba, he matched up against Winnipeg’s top line (Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi) for over ten minutes at 5v5 in this game, and against Scheifele specifically, he won the expected goals battle 1.12-0.51.
His in-zone defending was textbook, as was his gap, angling, and engagement in the neutral zone. He is still evolving his offensive repertoire, and in this game, he manipulated defenders at the point with his smooth edgework, protection, poise, and decision-making. He’s a bona fide #1 defenseman in this league, and he’s beginning to earn recognition for his efforts.
Defensive Zone Coverage: Early in this game, the Jets were finding every seam and patch of soft ice in the offensive zone, extending cycle sequences with pinching defensemen, winning position battles, and connecting small area plays that had the Ducks’ five-man unit a step behind.
The Ducks made adjustments to their breakout, which was disconnected and fell victim to some poor decisions from outlet wingers, and they elected to chip and flip more pucks to the neutral zone, which limited time spent in the defensive zone and punted the battles to neutral ice.
Attack: Whether off the rush or cycle, the Ducks got the shots off they were looking for, often coming off clever sequences high in the offensive zone, but they were losing low slot battles and getting boxed out by the Jets’ defenders, which allowed Hellebuyck to see most shots and suffocate any threat of a rebound.
As mentioned, by getting more pucks to the neutral zone against a Winnipeg blueline without puckmovers like Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk, Anaheim was able to build more sequences in the offensive zone and get the Jets’ towering defenders out of position, even if slightly, enough to capitalize.
Beckett Sennecke: To say the puck "just found" Sennecke in this game would be a disservice to his anticipation skills, an area he’s thrived in since well before his NHL career began. He made two mistakes in a first-period shift, one at each end of the ice, but took over every one of his shifts thereafter.
He was finding ways to pick up pucks at full speed in the neutral zone and would attempt to break down the defender in front of him. Whether successful or not, whether he got a shot off or not, he’d soon find the puck again and head another attack. Though he hasn’t had that same success gaining entry on the power play as a trailing forward, he’s become a true difference-maker and is an important piece to the present success of the team as well as the future.
The Ducks’ homestand will continue on Sunday when they’ll host the Calgary Flames, who will be on their second game of a back-to-back, as they’ll faceoff against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.